Smart business? Pas dans mon backyard!

A very amusing story caught my eye; covered in the business pages of several newspapers today.

A property company called Drivers Jonas has been ordered by a French court to pay damages to the organisers of a property conference for what has been deemed to be ‘parasitical’ behaviour. Basically, rather than buy a stand at the property conference and pay exorbitant rates for the pleasure, Drivers Jonas rented a restaurant across the road and invited passing visitors round for a civilised coffee and a croissant.

Amazingly, in the view of the French court, this is parasitical business practice, and criminal to boot.

I call it bloody marvellous. One of my business mentors tells a similar story of his startup days; where he couldn’t afford the fees for exhibition equipment and trade shows. Instead, he spent £200 on handouts and paid two glamorous ladies who were otherwise employed primarily during night-time hours to stand outside the venue and hand out his leaflets. He got plenty of new business and never paid the organisers once.

I am pleased to say that the Drivers Jonas case would have no foothold in British law, and neither should it. Being smart is part of business. Hungry businesses looking for loopholes should be encouraged to keep us all on our toes, not slapped down in court.

And if you’d like to investigate somewhat more straightforward ways of boosting your competitiveness and finding new business, take a look at Microsoft’s Small Business ‘Get more done in your day’ technology solutions.

Note: This blog entry was originally posted on truebusiness.co.uk. View original post